My father looks up at my mother and frowns. Without another word, I feel my mother grab my hand in her own and pull me after her towards gate B.
**********
“He’s mine Gia! Portamelo adesso!” I hear a man say a few days later in the front room of a house that still scares me at night, even though we’ve been here for three days now. I couldn’t sleep, worried because I now know I’m going to miss show and tell, and even worse, I don’t know when I will even get to see Tommy again. The loud voices pulled me out of my bedroom, but they sound mad, scary, and so I stay hidden in the dark.
“Mai! Never, Luigi! You have another boy. Sofia has done well to give you one. Besides, it is her family that matters most to you! Her ties, her connection, you want most. I will not have my son in your family business.”
I hear a loud slap followed by my mother’s yell. My father shouts something in Italian that I don’t understand before I hear the stranger laugh, but I stay where I am, hidden in the shadows.
“Tell your pawn in life to shut his fucking mouth Gia, or I will blow it off!” I hear my mother gasp as I look around the corner and see the strange man pull her into him by her hair.
I want to save her. I want to help her. But my eyes scan the room and I quickly see two other men. One has my father and is pointing a gun to his head. The other is standing guard at the doorway with one of the largest rifles I have ever seen clutched tightly in his fist. I swallow over a lump in my throat and quickly hide behind the corner again.
“You’ll never get him, Luigi. Non sara tuo!” I hear her spit, probably in his face, and seconds later hear the cocking of pistols, but whoever has them holds their fire.
“Puttana!” I hear the stranger say before my mother cries again. “I will have my son. You will give him to me. One way or another. And you’re right! Sofia gives me more than you ever have, but that won’t stop me from taking what I want while I let your fidanzato watch!”
I’m too young to understand, but what he just said makes me scared enough for all of us as my feet take off down the hallway and I hurl myself back in my room, slamming the door behind me. Locking it quickly, I slide under my bed and start to cry as the hallway outside the door fills with the terror filled screams of my mother and father in the front room.
***********
I look to the floor a week later, still too ashamed to glance up and meet my mother’s eyes. I know she doesn’t know that I heard the incident from a few nights back. But I know. And the truth, the memories, the sounds and sights from that night have filled my nightmares and daydreams since, making it impossible to be the son she remembers.
“Leonardo,” I hear her soft voice say. “Baby, we are here.” I look up at the house in front of us, the one that sits on the top of a large hill in Sicily and frown. I want to go home. I want to see my turtle Tommy. I want to go back to America and forget this trip ever happened. But that’s impossible, and what’s even more, I learned last night that we won’t be going home. Not ever.
Exiting the car, I pull my suitcase on the seat beside me and stand in the afternoon sun. A woman, someone I heard mother mention might be named Sofia, comes out of the front door and smiles. But all I can think about is that night and how the stranger talked of a Sofia before doing something to my mother that I never want to know about and will ultimately scar me for the rest of my life.
Soon, my eyes catch a girl behind her mother’s skirt. Younger than me, shorter, and much prettier than any girl I went to school with back home in America. Her hair is blonde, and she smiles at me. I look to the dirt, not wanting her smile to have the power it just did. To light up my life when it’s been consumed by darkness ever since that night a week back. But soon she is standing in front of me and I can’t help but look up and meet her stare.
“Hi,” she grins. “My name is Maria.”
I look past her and tug my suitcase tighter to me. I catch my mother’s eyes for the first time since that night as she looks back at me and smiles while she walks up the hill to the house. I guess if she can learn how to smile again, I can too. Especially when pretty girls make you.
I look back at the girl in front of me and give her a sad grin back. “Leonardo,” I mutter, as I begin to walk past her and up the hill to follow my mother. She grabs a hold of my arm and holds on tight as she follows.
“Don’t worry,” she says, as if she can read my mind. “Like Momma says, La vita e bella, Leonardo. You’ll see.”
Chapter 20
Leonardo
“Do you really think it was just by chance that Luigi found you on the streets, kid? That he took you in? Made you one of the family?” My heart begins to race from the realization hitting me faster than I can process it right now. Instinctively, I look toward Maria who appears just as shocked as me as she sits in her seat across the room near Nitti.
Her eyes, a mixture of confusion and disbelief, look at me briefly with compassion for what we have just heard before I see them change and she glares at me like the enemy, the threat, I am to her. I recognize it only because it was the same way I stared at her when we found out about her secrets, her past, and how every bit of the truth quickly began to unravel our future.
“That’s impossible!” I shout, but Nitti rises from his seat and laughs at my outburst.
“Doubt it all you want kid, but Lombardi blood runs through your veins. Something Luigi has worked very hard to keep hidden from you. And something, I intend to use to my advantage.”
“What advantage?” I grit out, as I stride a step forward and feel every amount of treason from the truth running through my veins the more it sets in that I am someone, something, that could destroy the woman I love. Crush all that we attempted to mend last night and leave us no ounce of hope moving forward.
“We have a common interest.” Nitti states, as he fills three glasses with scotch. Walking my way, he hands one to Maria before reaching out and insisting I take mine as well. I hesitate before grabbing the glass and waiting for him to continue. “I have every intention of making sure my daughter remains safe, and you wouldn’t let Luigi hurt the woman you love. Not a second time.”
A second time? How does he know?
I look at Maria over Nitti’s shoulder and question if I can trust him, or if this is just some plan to get me off my game so he can ruin me and get me out of the picture the first chance he gets. “It’s not that easy,” I whisper. “Luigi has power. Prestige. He’s planned every aspect of his takeover for years, Nitti. Plus, what makes you think I would sabotage my own flesh and blood? You may have your daughter back now, but if what you say is true, Luigi isla mia famiglia.And I am just now realizing the lie I’ve been living this entire time. Maybe I don’t want to lose that, lose him. Not yet. Maybe… not ever.”
He glares at me before turning and sitting back down in his seat across the room. “What kind of loyalty do you have to a man that would keep you a secret, Leonardo? Why would you continue to serve him? To do what he says and take away what I want most, my daughter’s safety?”
